Category: Energy & Gasoline Prices

Best line of the day, so far

“American consumers and our economy need a real solution to the energy crisis, not an empty trick. You can run cars on a lot of different fuels, but snake oil isn’t one of them.”

Rep. George Miller criticizing Clinton and McCain for their gasoline tax holiday proposal.

Meanwhile, “More than 200 economists, including four Nobel prize winners, signed a letter rejecting proposals by presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and John McCain to offer a summertime gas-tax holiday.” (Bloomberg.com)

Stupidest policy moment ever?

The pandering and ignorance-across-party-lines represented by the John McCain-Hillary Clinton united front for a temporary reduction in the gasoline tax should make Americans hold their heads in their hands and moan. …

I can imagine that John McCain, who boasts about his sketchy command of economics, might consider this a good idea. But the master of policy, Hillary Clinton??

Please. This is embarrassing. It makes me long for the good old days of debating about flag pins on the lapel.

James Fallows

Fallows wonders “has there been bipartisan agreement to stupider effect in, say, the last fifty years?”

The worst kind of pandering

Senator Clinton has now joined Senator McCain in calling for a suspension of the federal gasoline tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day. It’s 18.4 cents a gallon, or less than five percent of the average cost. Worse, it is simply bad public policy.

Anyone advocating such a mindless scheme is simply unfit to lead this nation during a time of economic, energy and environmental crisis.

The price of gasoline has actually increased more than the federal tax since McCain suggested its suspension.

Valero

There has been an additional line of gas stations I’ve noticed recently — Valero. They have 5,800 outlets, yet I’d never heard of them until the past year or two. Valero also has 17 refineries “with a throughput capacity of approximately 3.1 million barrels per day.”

So today’s trivia question is: Where does the name Valero come from? (No fair Googling.)

Hint: The company is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas.

The answer is in the Handbook of Texas.

High price of oil — here

Oil hit a new price today — $89 a barrel.

On George W. Bush’s inauguration day in January 2001, you could have purchased a barrel of oil for about $30. If you lived in Europe, a barrel would have set you back about 32 Euro. Because the value of the U.S. Dollar has fallen so substantially since then (it took 93 cents to buy a Euro in January 2001, it now takes $1.42), the increase in the cost of oil for a U.S. consumer has far outstripped the increase for a Euro (or Canadian, or Swiss, or just about any other) consumer.

Today, it takes US $89 to buy a barrel of oil, but only 62 Euro.

MotherJones.com

$53.84

NewMexiKen set a new personal best at the gasoline pump today: 16.029 gallons at $3.359 a gallon.

Gasoline is a utility. It costs what it costs, like electricity or cable internet. If it hadn’t been priced so low most of my life — I once paid 179 cents a gallon — we wouldn’t be as upset.

The thing to do, of course, is drive less, turn down the thermostat in the winter and up in the summer, replace incandescent bulbs. I believe it’s a good thing that cost is finally making us conserve.

Just in case you’ve been noticing

WASHINGTON — The average price U.S. drivers pay for gasoline shot past $3 a gallon and was just 1.5 cents away from the all-time record, the government said today.

The national price for regular unleaded gasoline rose 8.3 cents over the last week to $3.054 a gallon, the second-highest level ever and 14.5 cents more than a year ago, the federal Energy Information Administration said in its weekly survey of 800 service stations.

The latest pump price is 1.5 cents from EIA’s weekly survey record of $3.069 set in September 2005 after Hurricane Katrina disrupted petroleum supplies.

The much larger Lundberg survey of 7,000 stations showed that gasoline jumped 19.5 cents over the past two weeks to set a new record of $3.068 a gallon for that report.

Reuters via the Los Angeles Times

Average price in San Francisco: $3.549 a gallon.

A best line and more

“If Republicans in this election vote in such a way as to say a candidate’s personal life and personal conduct in office doesn’t matter, then a lot of Christian evangelical leaders owe Bill Clinton a public apology.”

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, a minister, who’s running for president himself. Guess he’s thinking about Rudy and Newt and St. McCain.

At Functional Ambivalent, Tom takes the side of the grumpy tourist who wouldn’t give the Starbuck’s barista his name.

Dan Neil gets to drive a Formula 1 car.

Some come to Vegas to visit the town’s fleshpots or to enrich its fleecing parlors, or simply to pass out by the pool. But in a nation obsessed with cars, sex, speed, diversion and the unholy mingling of same, it’s no surprise that the city of demiurges has become a major destination for people who want to get their wheel freak on.

Here you can rent a Ferrari by the hour, drive a rooster-tailing sand buggy, go roundy-round on the Las Vegas speedway in a 650-horsepower stock car, learn to ride the sickest racing motorcycle the deviants at Honda or Ducati can devise.

At the top of this particular pile of coin-operated thrills, however, is LRS Formula USA, a company that sells mere mortals the chance to wedge, and I do mean wedge, themselves into an full-on, honest-to-Odin F1 car.

“I don’t have little cars,” says LRS principal Pierre-Louis Moroni. “They’re not toys. These are as close to a race-ready F1 car as you can drive, unless you buy one yourself.”

Neil goes on to relate his experience — he’s so low to the ground and the car is so finely suspended, “I could read a newspaper if I ran over it.” $3,395 for four laps if you’re interested.

Glenn Greenwald reports on conversations National Review‘s Ramesh Ponnuru had with Cato Institute’s President Ed Crane.

Crane asked if Romney believed the president should have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens with no review. Romney said he would want to hear the pros and cons from smart lawyers before he made up his mind.

Crane said that he had asked Giuliani the same question a few weeks ago. The mayor said that he would want to use this authority infrequently.

These gentlemen are running to be President of the United States and they are unable to express an understanding of the basic tenets of our Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Gasoline in San Francisco

Gasoline in Albuquerque is $2.65/2.75/2.85 a gallon. Buy your gas early in the day so you can save the several cents a gallon it will go up by nightfall. We need an election to get the price back down again. Photo from Crooks and Liars. Don’t you just love the persistence of the 9/10ths?

The new NewMexiKen design is a work-in-progress, but then isn’t everything?

Pay at the Pump

Gas prices are on the way up again and could likely pass $3 again this summer in many areas, according to the Detroit News. Gas in Detroit is up a whopping 38 cents in a month, and based on last years’ precedent is on course to again pass 3 bucks in May.

If you don’t live on the West Coast, consider yourself fuel-lucky. In Sacramento gas is now at $2.72 compared to the national average of $2.26.

WIRED Blogs: Autopia

Now This Is Stupid

Gallup asks: Where Will Gas Prices Be at Year’s End?. To answer, they take a poll.

Now in fairness, that’s what Gallup does, take polls. But seriously, who gives a rat’s ass what the “public thinks” the price of gas will be? Will knowing what we think have any impact on prices? For that matter, will it have any impact on anything — well, maybe on car sales.

But what I would like to know is why doesn’t someone in the “press” explain why prices have dropped so precipitously (about 18% nationally, much more in some locations)? Crude oil prices have dropped about the same percentage, but crude prices are only part of the price of gasoline. There’s taxes (45 cents on average), transmission, refining, delivery, retail. None of those costs has dropped and oil market prices simply don’t explain the decrease.

What does?

Just Luck

So gasoline prices have come down and people are happy again — just in time for the mid-term election.

What a stroke of luck for the oil companies!

What a further stroke of luck it would be if prices then went back up after the election.

Of course, there’s that old expression about “making your own luck.” But only a cynic would suggest that oil companies have any influence over the price of gasoline.

Or that, even if they did, they would ever try to use their influence to help the Administration retain unchecked power (other than with political contributions, which thus far in 2006 exceed $12.5 million, 83% to Republicans).

— Andrew Tobias

[Update: Here’s a chart tracking gasoline prices and Bush’s popularity.]